Billion Dollar Hack by Colin Durrant has a great plot. The story starts with a security breach at a bank in New York. This breach turns into a super hack with many countries impacted. There are a lot of detail concerning cyber security. However, the writing doesn’t do justice to the plot. It’s choppy and painful to read at times. I received a copy of this book from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program.

This book started out well. It is a gripping technological thriller involving a group of hackers trying to save the world following a super-hack which causes massive disruption to people's lives. The action is initially tightly scripted and certainly keeps one turning the pages. There are some shocking twists that I certainly didn't see coming. The ending is quite a surprise too ... enough said.

Clearly the author is well versed in cyber security. There is a mass of references to many historical grand hacks and the disruption they have already caused in real life. This is my main criticism of the book. The wealth of technical and factual information added to the authentic feel of the fictional drama however I felt that there was too much of this. The story development and action sequences were slowed down by the book becoming a cyber security manual in places.

That being said I still thought it was a good read. I enjoyed it and I am pleased I read it. ( )

This book had a lot of potential to be one of those ‘un-put-downable’ novels but the flow just wasn’t there. It seemed to be more of a memo with ‘dot points’ than a regular book, or a script for a play.
Full marks on the research which had obviously gone into the various computer programs but it made it appear that just about all of the main characters were hackers and not just computer geeks (maybe they were). Just doesn’t happen like that in my world, but then again it is fiction.
Would have all made a bit more sense to the reader (me) if the story could have been somehow split in places so we could understand what was happening in the other part of the story rather than just what was happening with the ‘heroes’. ( )

Hackers gained control of the worldwide network of computers that are essential to the functioning of contemporary society and are creating chaos. Gary, a computer expert employed by a major bank, attempts to identify the hackers, and they respond by framing him for the hack. Forced to evade law enforcement and hacker-dispatched hit squads, he pulls together a small team and continues working to identify the hackers.

This promising premise is undercut by Durant’s inept rendering of the story. Billion Dollar Hack reads more like a newspaper article or term paper than fiction. The flat, lifeless prose brings to mind Los Angeles police detective Joe Friday’s monotone instruction, “Just the facts, ma’am.” Friday delivered his line in a monotone, a tone fitting for an audio version of this book. Durant lasks a feel for essential information. For example, he writes, “[Gary] headed to the kitchen to try and find what he needed to make some coffee. He found everything he needed and set about making two cups of coffee.” Many aspects of the story are unbelievable, and of the text could serve as verbal descriptions of scenes depicted in Die Hard 4. The plot unfolds in a step-by-step account as if Durant is unaware of the distinction between showing readers what happens rather than telling them what happens. ( )

Billion Dollar Hack by Colin Durrant is a fairly good book. It tells the story of a computer security expert working for a bank in New York. It starts with being called in to deal with a stolen identity and online credentials of a senior manager at the bank. They discover while dealing with this that the bank has been hacked for many months using this senior manager's and that of other bank personnel credentials. While dealing with this, there is a large scale hack of numerous computer systems around the world, but primarily in the U.S. The government pays a billion dollar ransom to stop the hack and starts a program with lucrative contracts to a number of firms with ties to the administration to help everyone get back up and running and increase online security from future hacks.

The expert from the bank while coordinating his initial response to the bank's hack with others around the world, makes contact with a group of hackers trying to gain information on the hack and who is behind it. This results in a series of attempts to kill him and others who are helping him or hiding him. The FBI is also searching for him. I will stop with the plot description here, not wanting to spoil the book ending.

This book could have been much better, if the story had been expanded to include story lines of what was going on inside the hacker gangs and their sponsors and more details within the journalist's organizations that he contacts to get out the information to the public on who is behind the hack. This is all going on in the background without much information on the delays, the attacks, motivations, etc. ( )